During a break in the weather which has been abysmal for what feels like weeks now I nipped out to pot up some of the tomatos and sunflowers, restake and generally tidy up. On the off chance I had a glace about and this was almost the first thing I laid eyes on. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, settled on a dried out clump of roses I really should have pruned. Thank goodness I'm a lazy gardener, too. It is a Southern Hawker (aeshna cyanea). In fact the colours are more vivid in nature than my camera has captured. Quite gorgeous and ever so patient, while I fiddled to get it in frame and in focus on a very windy day.
It bore with me while I shifted about to shield it from the wind long enough to get a good close up. This is the one I'm happiest with.
This dragonfly is large, too, as can be seen from the fat digit I succeeded in getting close to it for scale indication purposes.
Addendum: I initially got over-excited and thought that what I'd seen and photographed was a Golden Ringed Dragonfly. My doubts were first aroused by the description of behaviour and distribution in The Book - "... hawking up and down moorland and mountain streams and rivers in search of their insect prey. They are locally common in such habitats, chiefly in northern and western Britain; but they are rare elsewhere and unknown in Ireland."
We're in a small town, near the east coast on a river emptying out near where the Channel turns into the North Sea. This is north Essex/East Anglia which is a part of Britain not known for its moorland or mountains. We've got plenty of salt marsh and farm landon the other hand. Anyway, turns out I was wrong but I'm quite confident in this ID now.
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